Remember Mina Morita, the former 7-term state representative from Kauai who went on to chair the Public Utilities Commission from 2011 until early this year and push the PUC in positive directions?
Henry Curtis described her career in a post on his Ililani Media blog in January 2014:
She was elected to the state House in 1996 where she served seven terms, six as Chair of the House Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection.
For the past three years she has served as Chair of the Hawai’i Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
Representative Mina Morita was instrumental in passing major energy legislation, including net energy metering, renewable portfolio standards, energy efficiency portfolio standards, greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and dedicated funding for energy and food security programs through a carbon tax on petroleum products.
Clearly, she has been a key participant in expanding Hawaii’s shift to renewable energy sources, and no shill for the energy corporations.
So I was quite interested to stumble across her new blog, Mina Morita Energy Dynamics, which is highly critical of the solar industry’s aggressive attacks on the proposed Hawaiian Electric-NextEra merger.
Here’s what Morita had to say a couple of days ago about The Alliance for Solar Choice: “Lurking in the background, purely to protect its own self interest and increase its market share, its motivation is a bigger threat to Hawaii’s electrical system” than NextEra.
In another post in early June, she wrote:
First of all, let me clarify – I am neither for or against the merger nor am I for or against rooftop solar or distributed generation. However, I am pragmatic and concerned that people are reacting emotionally and taking positions and making decisions that may not be cost-effective and provide only short-term gains for a few. The guerrilla tactics being used by these two entities through the press and social media only detract from real issues, the technical and economic challenges that Hawaii’s electric systems face in transforming a system to benefit all.
Are TASC and KULOLO (Keep Our Utilities Locally Owned and Locally Operated) acting in the public interest for the public good? I’m not sure, but it sure looks and smells like corporate business as usual to me. With the Sierra Club as the “local” front man, it’s just a move to increase rooftop pv market share and a promotion of self-interest wrapped up as democratization of power generation. I cannot help but feel that Hawaii is being used as the poster child to preserve net metering programs and what happens here will influence and affect these companies’ profitability nationwide thus their active interest, concern and the distractions.
The post then runs through the founding members of TASC and ends with this observation:
The local effort to stop the big corporate takeover isn’t so “local.” And if you think local ownership is the panacea you are living in la-la land. Sorry to be so harsh but this lack of understanding of what is happening to our electric system is serious and cannot be left to the un- and ill- informed.
It seems to me that hers is a voice that we need to carefully listen to and fully consider.
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“The local effort to stop the big corporate takeover isn’t so “local.” And if you think local ownership is the panacea you are living in la-la land. Sorry to be so harsh but this lack of understanding of what is happening to our electric system is serious and cannot be left to the un- and ill- informed.”
she took the words from my fingertips. “local” in most if not all countries often means “disconnected from the rest of the planet and jumping straight to emotional judgment.”
“Local” is the most cynically exploited word and sentiment in Hawaii.
Mina is both experienced and wise. She was an excellent representative for Kauai in her many years in the legislature and always mindful of the big picture–that being what benefited everyone–what was best for Hawaii’s people.
When she speaks, I listen, because I know it is backed up by facts and uncommon (and very welcome) savvy.
Her blatant misuse of her Hanalei property for personal gain loses her all credibility with me. I now consider her “up for sale.”
As a legislator, Mina Morita was a strong proponent of the mandate to blend 10% ethanol into the gasoline sold here, under the misguided notion that this “cart-before-the-horse” mandate would spur local ethanol production and reduce the price of gas. Nearly ten years later, the mandate is set to be repealed, totally failing both of the aforementioned goals.
Morita may be fascinated by the topic of alternative energy and have the sincerest of intentions. But that doesn’t mean that her ideas and theories automatically translate into sound policies that benefit the public in the “real world.”
Mina Morita spends an unreasonable amount of time attacking a sponsor of KULOLO (Keep Utilities Locally Owned and Locally Operated), instead of addressing the underlying issues and recognizing the other sponsors and thousands of individuals who’ve signed on.
To suggest that the Sierra Club of Hawaii is a “front” for any organization is silly. It is false. It’s baseless speculation and it is unbecoming of Mina Morita.
It is as irresponsible as if we were to suggest that Mina is unduly close to HECO’s point of view because of her friendship with HEI CEO Connie Lau, or that Mina has used her friendship with Senator Roz Baker to try to kill pro-PV legislation. Those are rumors that have long circulated in this town, but for which I have seen no evidence. So I refrain from saying that Mina is a front for HECO or NextEra.
The Sierra Club’s highest priority is simple: to wean humankind off fossil fuels before our climate is changed so substantially that it threatens our civilization – a real danger that is swiftly looming. We have to shift to alternative energy sources as rapidly as possible.
Rooftop solar has already proven that it can be installed very fast. If the GEMS program were activated as intended, it would allow people of all income strata to afford the benefits of PV. If we could install a smart grid and storage, we could make huge strides in a very short period of time. However a rapid acceleration of distributed generation would undermine the vertically integrated monopoly utility model that is HECO (and NextEra’s) bread and butter.
NextEra has killed distributed generation and rooftop solar in Florida. NextEra has just announced that it intends to invest $500,000,000 every year in fracking for methane. It is clear that NextEra wants to shift Hawaii’s electricity generation to substantial amounts of LNG. Converting our power stations to burn LNG would be great for HECO/NextEra’s bottom line. But it would condemn Hawaii to remain dependent on a dirty imported fossil fuel for decades to come.
If you analyze the full lifecycle of LNG, you find that it has significantly greater global warming impacts than coal. Why would HECO/NextEra stick to that model? Because they are publicly traded corporations with a fiduciary obligation to make profits for their stockholders. At a time when the PUC is being required to consider the implications of allowing HECO to be gobbled up by a for-profit mainland corporation headquartered 4600 miles away, does it not make sense to also consider changing the ownership model to one that is not-for-profit, cooperatively or municipally owned? The Sierra Club has not taken a position in favor of either idea, we are simply suggesting that these are possible alternatives that the PUC should consider.
“nor am I for or against rooftop solar or distributed generation. ”
This seems an odd statement from an environmentalist. Perhaps she is not one.
An op-ed from Mina Morita:
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Its-Time-to-End-Net-Energy-Metering-in-Hawaii
One of the downsides of NEM which is not mentioned in Morita’s op-ed above is that costs for maintaining the grid shift entirely to the rest of us who don’t have solar panels, even while those who have solar panels (subsidized by NEM) use the grid disproportionately (to buy electricity from and sell it to the utility).
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/11/28/net-energy-metering-are-we-capitalists-or-what/
On the other hand, this concern for “fairness” is also the point of view of the utility industry. Up until recently, it has never, ever voiced any concern for the less advantaged members of society.
Here are the members of the Edison Foundation:
http://www.edisonfoundation.net/iei/about/Pages/UtilityMembers.aspx
Interestingly, the comments under Morita’s article are at least as informative as her article.
Some of the best comments are by Sonja, an engineer on Kauai. Here is a collation of some of her comments:
Awesome comments in terms of information provided. Thank you “Sonja”.
So it’s all very complicated and troubling.
The strongest advocates for NEM are the companies that sell solar panels.
Those who argue most passionately that this is unfair to the poor are the utilities who historically have had zero interest in anything but their own profits.
And the energy cooperative on Kauai might not be so perfect after all.
In other words, it’s human nature all over again.